Fallout from the Pandemic: Inevitable Change

Seven Steps to Consider With Organizational Change

The chief executive officer of a German automotive company wrote a few years back about one of the most important aspects of any business or organization — change.

One requirement of the CEO at the company was to have an annual meeting with employees and field their questions.

An employee stood up and said, “Look. We make this company run like clockwork day after day after day. Why do we need management people like you?”

The CEO answered, “You don’t. Except when there is a need for one thing — change.”

And, of course, you know the rest of the story. Any business or organization (or person) that fails to change is risking its future.

There has been so much change in the past year. Unbelievable change. Some say more change in technology than we have seen in the past 10 years. That seems a bit hyperbolic, but we get the point.

But, how do we bring about change in any organization? Here are seven steps to consider.

First, it begins with having a reason to change. It can be financial problems, competition, customer dissatisfaction, government regulations, lagging technology, societal shifts, a greater contribution to humankind, or how about this — a pandemic.

It’s not uncommon that when new management enters an organization the first thing he/she wants to…